He said the Prime Minister needed to show leadership on this issue, and make sure it was thoroughly and independently investigated because it goes to the heart of New Zealand's democracy.

The Electoral Commission is looking into the allegations, but Bridges said that body was a "toothless tiger".

"It ultimately does not have anything like the powers to deal with this."

Which sounds like he supports change. Which is great, because there's an Electoral Amendment Bill before the Justice Committee right now which could be amended. If Bridges wants greater transparency and more enforcement powers for the Electoral Commission, he should put his money where his mouth is and publicly suggest appropriate amendments. The government will be basicly backed into a corner on this and be forced to either support them, or taint themselves with the public by backing the obviously broken status quo. But of course Bridges won't, because the last thing any establishment party wants to do is let the public know who is bribing them...